Patty Murray

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk on behalf of Senator Stabenow and ask for its consideration.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the pending amendment be temporarily set aside in order that I may send an amendment to the desk.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, pursuant to section 904 of the Congressional Budget Act, I move to waive the applicable sections of that act for purposes of the pending amendment. I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, how much time is remaining?

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I yield all our remaining time to Senator Durbin.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, how much time is remaining on the Democratic side?

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be dispensed with.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I yield 9 minutes to the Senator from California.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I yield 2 minutes to the Senator from Delaware.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. President, we are here on the floor of the Senate this evening talking about the maritime cargo security bill. This is an extremely important piece of legislation. I have been working on this issue since September 11, 5 years ago, when I recognized, as did others, that we have an extreme vulnerability in our port cargo container system when it comes to our Nation's security. We have been working since that time to put together legislation. I commend Senator Collins and her staff, Senator Inouye, Senator Stevens, the Finance Committee, and numerous Senators who have worked together to get us to this point. As I said earlier on the floor of the Senate, this measure is extremely important. For the first time, when this bill is passed and it goes to the President's desk, we will assure that every cargo container coming into this country has a much higher level of security. We also will put in place what is called the GreenLane bill, which will allow an even higher point of security for companies that voluntarily opt to make sure that when their cargo containers are loaded overseas, they are secured, that we know what is in them, we know who is handling them, and we know if they have been diverted. They will be tracked across the ocean, and before they ever come into our ports we will know that they are safe. Those cargo containers with that higher level of scrutiny will then move off of our ports in a much more efficient and quick manner, leaving behind those containers that will still need to have a higher degree of inspection. Finally, our bill will make sure we have a way to resume cargo handling quickly and efficiently should a terrible incident ever occur at our ports. This bill balances the need of making sure our ports and our containers and the people who live and work around those containers, as well as the cargo there, are secured. It balances that with the important economic activity that occurs at ports across our country. When this bill was brought to the floor of the Senate earlier last week, it lacked one critical component, and that was a dedicated funding stream. As I shared with my colleagues, I was deeply concerned that if we did not fund this bill, we would leave an empty shell and an empty promise to the people of America that we were securing our ports. That is why today I was very happy the Senate agreed to my amendment to have a funding stream and to put that into this bill to make sure, as it moves forward, we will have the personnel we need to make sure the regime we have put in place actually occurs, that we will have the infrastructure that will be needed to make sure we can assure a secure system of cargo containers this country relies on for its economic activity. That amendment was adopted, and with that I believe this bill is one we can all be proud of. Within a few days, as we work through the rest of the amendments, I, for one, will finally be able to sleep at night knowing we have made a major move forward. So there are still amendments to be brought forward to the Senate. I know we are going to work our will through them. But I commend all of our colleagues for stepping up to the plate on this important issue. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record four editorials that talk about the need for funding.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to add Senator Schumer as a cosponsor to the Dorgan amendment No. 4937.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to add Senator Clinton as a cosponsor to my amendment No. 4929.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, will the Senator withhold his request?

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I yield back the time on the Democratic side.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mrs. MURRAY. I move to lay that motion on the table. The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, this is an agreed-upon modification to the amendment I spoke to this morning regarding the funding for port security. As I said this morning, it makes sure that we have adequate resources to implement the port security bill, and that is essential to its success. We have worked out an agreement with Finance, and that amendment is pending. I hope we can move quickly and agree to it.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I send a modification to the desk.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, is my amendment now pending?

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment and call up the Murray amendment No. 4929.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mrs. MURRAY

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask for the yeas and nays.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, this morning the Senate is considering a very important bill, the port security bill, which many Members have come to the floor to talk about. I am proud to be an original sponsor of this bill and have been working on it for a number of years; in fact, since five years ago, after September 11, when I was the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee chair. At that time I began to bring stakeholders together to talk about how we can make sure the cargo containers that are coming into this country are secure. It is a very complex issue. It is very difficult to do. We have a tremendous balancing act of making sure that cargo containers are safe when they come into our ports but also that we don't halt our economy as we move forward with this initiative. I have been very proud to work with a number of Senators in getting us to this point, and I am hoping this bill will move forward in an expeditious manner. Obviously, there will be a number of amendments that come before us, and I look forward to working with other Senators on both sides of the aisle to move them forward. The bill that is now before the Senate has one major hole. The original bill we have been working on with all of the committees contained a funding source for this bill that some Members had some concerns about. The original bill that we offered had tariff fees as the funding source. The Finance Committee has objected to that. They were concerned about that. I understand that concern. Because of that objection, the bill that has come before us is an important bill, but it lacks the ability to put in place a secure system. It is essentially an empty shell without a funding source. That is why I have sent to the desk right now an amendment we have been working on together with a number of people to make sure this bill is not just about rhetoric but actually has the funding behind it. If we pass this bill without funding it, we will not have done our job. The amendment I sent to the desk extends two existing Customs user fees for 1 year to fund this bill. Those are fees that are collected today that are going to expire, and all we are doing is extending the collection for an additional year. The fees we are extending are the merchandise processing fee and the passenger conveyance fee. Extending those for just 1 year will produce close to $2.5 billion in revenue and will importantly provide a dedicated funding stream to pay for the new security initiatives authorized in this bill. By voting for this amendment, this Senate will put money behind the rhetoric of port security. This Senate will put money behind the rhetoric. That is absolutely critical in today's world. I sit on the Appropriations Committee. I sit on the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. If we do not put a dedicated source of funding behind this bill, we will simply put port security in contention with all of the other functions of the Department of Homeland Security. We will be looking at Coast Guard money, FBI money, all of the important functions that we need to have within this bill, and port security will be just another issue that doesn't get funded. That is why this funding amendment is so absolutely critical. The funding for this amendment is going to be used to hire new Customs and Border Protection officers. We can't just simply require our Customs and border officials to do more. They are important positions. Their eyes on the containers and their eyes on the tracking, their eyes on the containers as they are loaded and secured is absolutely critical. Without putting new Customs and Border Patrol agents in place to do the functions we are asking for in this bill, we simply will be sending an empty promise to America. The funding also will improve the tracking and data collection of every container coming into our ports. That is essential funding which will make sure what we put into those containers is sealed, that someone is watching to make sure they haven't been tampered with, that no one has gotten into them, and that those containers have not gone someplace they are not supposed to. Just putting a tracking seal on it isn't going to make sure we know a container has not been tampered with. We need the personnel in place to do the tracking. That is an important item for funding in this bill. The current bill doesn't have the funding for it. The amendment I am offering will make sure we have eyes on those tracking systems. The funding will also establish incentive programs for shippers who voluntarily agree to these standards. That is the GreenLane section of this bill that is very important to make sure we know we can reduce the number of cargo containers coming into our ports that could produce a danger for American citizens and for America's economy. The funding will also establish protocols for the resumption of cargo shipments after a disruptive incident. We put in place a system which assures, should an incident occur on one of our ports, that we have a resumption strategy in place so we know which cargo, which containers can begin to move off of our ports in an expeditious manner. The reason this is so important is if we don't have a protocol in place, it will take weeks, if not months, to get that cargo moving again. That will have a tremendous impact on our economy not just in our port cities but throughout the Nation, as stores would not have any retail goods on their shelves. The economic impact of that has been outlined in this debate, but it would be devastating. We absolutely need to have a protocol in place, and this funding stream will assure it is not just empty rhetoric but actually a funding source. Finally, the funding is important for authorizing and appropriating money for a grant system for our ports, critical funding infrastructure for gates, for fencing, for making sure people are in place to know who is coming onto our ports--critical infrastructure that we have known is lacking and needs a real funding stream, not just rhetoric saying we are requiring it. I am very pleased to bring this amendment to the Senate, and I hope it is agreed to overwhelmingly because it is critical that we put in place not just an authorizing bill to tell the American public we are putting in place a port security bill but that we actually have the funding so we can accomplish what I think everyone believes is an important goal. I have presented this amendment and ask for its consideration. I yield the floor.

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the reading of the amendment be dispensed with.